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Text |Deep dive AtomYears from now, when faced with self-driving cars on the streets, Cook will recall that distant afternoon when Musk came to ask him to buy Tesla.
No doubt, recentlyThe biggest news in the tech world is Apple's announcement to terminate the car-building project。You know, this project called Titan has been carried out by Apple for more than ten years. This is a regrettable thing for those who have enthusiasm and expectations for Apple cars. But the reaction of the capital market was the opposite. After Apple made this decision, Apple's stock price actually responded**。Finally in the New York market with 182$63**, an increase of about 1%.
This is straightforward to explainInvestors are not optimistic about Apple's car。Now, Cook pressed the stop button on the project, giving them a long sigh of relief. Will Apple's termination of car manufacturing have any impact on Apple and the automotive industry? Some commenters put it very bluntly:
The innovative project of the Apple car has been stopped, and the impact on Apple and the automotive industry is almost zero. Because this is a low-probability event from the beginning to the end, it is nothing more than a 10% probability to 0%.
The Apple Car has long been a dying project in the eyes of analysts.
Musk responded to the incident with two memes on X, one is a salute and the other is a smoke ring. It left the onlookers with endless blind thoughts.
But the focus of deep diving ATOM is:Musk and Jobs, Tesla and Apple, represent two completely different technological routes and product thinking。The beauty of Steve Jobs is that he has insight into people's hearts and wants to make products different, but Apple's role in the entire product production process is more like a product manager, providing ideas, providing designs, and pinching the entire chain to do things for itself.
Musk, on the other hand, chose to go directly to the field and reengineer and reshape the production process, processes, and even parts. And the vision of these products is roughly and crudely unified in the narrative of his own colonization of Mars. Under the shadow of this grand narrative, he can accept the imperfections of his products, such as the many criticized doors that are not tightly fitted, the interior is too rough, and even many product changes that critics and consumers consider too radical.
Apple couldn't accept putting a rough stuff on the market all along。Perhaps the most typical example is Airpower, whose plan was announced in 2017, when Apple conceived a charger to serve its entire ecosystem of mobile devices. In the showcase, the initial version of Airpower was able to power three devices, including the Apple Watch. The charger has an integrated coil array for free-placement charging. But in the end, Apple ended the project on the grounds that it "didn't meet our high standards." When you face those "glamorous sluts" in Huaqiangbei, you can't help but wonder, is it really necessary for Apple to be so strict about the details?
To this day, who still remembers Tesla's stupidity when it first hit the road. After rounds of iterations, Tesla has almost become synonymous with autonomous driving.
The heart and soul of Apple's magic is what Jobs always said about "think different", and although the Chinese translation is more inclined to "extraordinary", it is still literally closer to the spirit of Jobs - thinking different. Thinking and differentiating, as well as exploring and innovating from this point of view, are the most important things。But the paradox is that in this wave of autonomous driving, there are actually many large companies that pay attention to and invest, but only Tesla and other companies are really willing to land on the product.
Perhaps, Apple should reflect on whether it was too content to be a "navy" in the years after Jobs, and forgot its "pirate" genes.
However, the strategy itself has two ends, one is the prediction and investment of prospects, and the other is the control of the margin of investment and capacity.
Apple doesn't make cars anymore, is it not a matter of making cars? Is it dissuading other explorers in the industry.
First of all, Apple announced that it would abandon its car research and development strategy, and at the same time, it also announced that it would doThe R&D team of 2,000 people will be transferred to the direction of artificial intelligence。Samsung, which is both an enemy and a friend of Apple, has been working on "AI mobile phones" recently. The AI of mobile phones is definitely a general direction and trend。And as a large manufacturer with its own OS, Apple will definitely catch up in this direction.
Siri's concept and products were launched in 2016, and Apple has been trying to make it a new way to enter and interact, but in daily use, this is still a dispensable feature and. But this is not to say that voice cannot be used as an entrance to interaction, especially when the requirements for intelligent cockpits in autonomous driving are getting higher and higher, and voice can undoubtedly shine.
After opening the era of spatial computing, Apple needs to focus on more urgent AI directions. It's not that building cars isn't cool, but after so many years of hard work, Apple has discovered the edge of its own abilityApple can't do it like Musk and Tesla, and reshape the production process and process of the entire automotive industry
But the car, certainly not just Tesla. As a product with a high unit price, in addition to the attributes of a load travel tool, the car also has a strong and complex identity and brand significance. At this stage, new energy and unmanned driving must impact the original pattern of low prices, but it does not mean that they will not launch more expensive cars in the future. The reason why people need five million cars is because people need to be quickly recognized by others that they have the strength of five million, which is an indelible simple truth.
So,In the matter of making cars, there will definitely be more brands that will enjoy the late-mover advantage and enjoy the dividends of the maturity of the industrial chain
Apple did nothing wrong, but Apple missed the era of making cars. This shows that Apple is not omnipotent. It is foreseeable that as a patent monster, the patents accumulated over the past ten years may be presented in other forms in the automotive industry in the future. Perhaps, after Apple abandons the autonomous driving project, there may be multiple paths for the development of automotive technology in parallel in the future.
After this Spring Festival, the Internet technology products represented by SORA seem to heraldThe update and iteration of technology has reached a new critical point. It's also a good time for the giants to revalue themselves, because a lot of fog has lifted, and a lot of the way forward is clear.